Monthly Archives: June 2013

Camera model: Nikon D4, Exposure time: 1/640s, Aperture: F4, ISO speed: 1600, Lens: 500mm Telephoto This is the Sauber trainer Josef Leberer working on Esteban Gutierrez’s neck ahead of a session and I took the photo because it’s quite rare to see this happening in the garage. Josef has been around in the sport for a very long time and as you can see in the older pictures has worked with some of the greats, such as Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. He’s spent over 25 years looking after drivers and there are not many people who have been around that long, let alone a trainer. He’s such an nice guy and knows everyone in the paddock – he must have lots of stories to tell and I’m surprised he’s not written a book!

Camera model: Nikon D4, Exposure time: 1/640s, Aperture: F7.1, ISO speed: 800, Lens: 500mm Telephoto These photos were taken on Saturday morning during the delay ahead of third practice when they were repairing the barriers after a crash in the Ferrari Challenge support event. Some of the drivers were just hanging around in the back of the garage but quite a few of them just sat in their cars as they are obviously quite comfortable places to be. Jean-Eric Vergne is probably embarrassed by that shot as it looks like he’s dropped off to sleep, but it’s quite funny. I felt sorry for the photographers out on the circuit, because they had to wait half an hour for the first car to come out. It was a bit of a waste of a morning.

Camera model: Nikon D4, Exposure time: 1/640s, Aperture: F14, ISO speed: 800, Lens: 24-70mm Zoom The second qualifying session was red flagged because of Felipe Massa’s crash at turn three. That gave me a chance to wire some photos back and I came across this scene as I returned to the track. I could hear the cars coming out so I walked towards the track where I knew there was a little gap in the fence by the end of the pit lane. They were lining up three-a-breast and I just thought it was a good picture. It was only later that I heard Kimi Raikkonen and Daniel Ricciardo has been given penalties for queuing too far over, as you can see in this picture. This is what happens sometimes as an F1 photographer, you take a shot and you think nothing of it and it’s only later that you realise the significance. We try to shoot as many people in the paddock as possible, even if we don’t know who they are, as there could be a story behind it.

Camera model: Nikon D4, Exposure time: 1/800s, Aperture: F20, ISO speed: 400, Lens: 24-70mm Zoom This was taken on Sunday morning when we finally got some blue skies and the sun came out. Montreal is such a nice place to shoot when the sun is out because you get a lot of light coming through the trees, but when it’s overcast it can look quite dull and boring. So this was the first shot of the weekend with the sun in it and I thought it created quite a nice image with the rich red as the light comes through the flag.

Camera model: Nikon D4, Exposure time: 1/500s, Aperture: F13, ISO speed: 320, Lens: 24-70mm Zoom The grid in Montreal was very good for pictures, especially after Monaco where the place is packed to the point that you can barely move. I don’t know what Bernie Ecclestone was up to, but he was demonstrating at Mark Webber as the Red Bull was wheeled onto the gird – I think he was just telling him ‘I’m in charge’. Then he went off and hugged Kimi, which was a bit bizarre, and then hugged Eddie Jordan. He seemed to be in a very buoyant mood for some reason – maybe he’d just secured another multi-million dollar deal.

This is a bit different to the usual celebration shots I feature in this column and makes a nice change from the podium. Sebastian Vettel is driving back through the pits following his victory and you can see the Red Bull mechanics cheering him home. It’s a shame he hasn’t got his hand out the cockpit in celebration, but the problem was an FIA guy was in the pit lane blocking the shot until we yelled at him to get out of the way. If you look in the very background you can see Christian Horner and he waved to him as he went past. It’s a nice picture nonetheless and the mechanics create a bit of atmosphere.